算了。

Let it be.

Dinner with 兆凯 and Luke

Today I got Korean BBQ with Luke and Zhaokai, so delicious! It's always great seeing 故人 (old friends). We caught up with what's going on in our lives recently and enjoyed our meal and then had some nice fruit smoothies/hot chocolate. Zhaokai is just so fashionable now!

2 things

(It is also 11:37 pm....this thing never gets the time right)
1.) I got third place in a speech competition last Thursday. Wooo. I competed in the Beginnner/Intermediate level and performed 逗你玩儿 with my friend Yoshi. Here is a link to the performance (not mine)

2.) Today has been a kind of frustrating day. It's just one of those days where it seems like I'm never going to learn this language and be able to communicate well, which is one of the most frustrating things ever. It's when you think things are going well and then you can't communicate with anyone. For example: Today I found a new dumpling place by the subway station and I wanted to order some jiaozi. I asked him for what I thought meant 4 kuai's worth. Then he was like 4 fenr which is like 4 parts/portions (which is ambigious). Then he was like for 4 people?! and I was like no no no, for one person. I ended up getting spinach/veggie ones when I originally said pork dumplings T_T. And in the end I got it da bao (take out). They were so delicious and only 10 kuai. Definitely going back. However my day was kind of full of fail within class and without and I just wasn't getting anything right today. GAH. I ended up going to BLCU after class and buying a book on grammar that I'm going to work through everyday to get better at grammar. Especially because I suck. Boo.


peace out girl scouts.

The art of getting your deposit back.

Today I moved out of my first apartment in China! This was a grand ordeal. It was really easy to clean up my apartment (I don't have very many things here) and I helped my flatmate. Tiancheng came and helped me move my suitcase and bag to my new apartment, and I kept with me an overnight bag and my 书包 (backpack).

Here is the catch. I can't move into my new apartment until tomorrow. Tonight I am crashing at my good friend John's apartment (he was born in the same hospital as me in Princeton!) with him and his fab German roommates Antonia and Marlena. We are having a great chinese study party in which Antonia and Marlena are doing their homework which is about difficulties in life. The difficulties in life are being paralyzed. Woo so applicable. I'm watching《逗你玩儿》 while eating celebratory noodles. I'm performing《逗你玩儿》next week. ahhh. John is muttering to himself about 饺子(dumplings).




So what happened with my apartment was that the agency stops owning it on the 30th. Which is tomorrow. Therefore me and my flatmates had to move out by today. This was problematic because to have an even 6 weeks and not get charged a ridiculous amount for my new apartment, I had to move in on the 30th. I was able to move my stuff there, but I can move in officially tomorrow morning. Because the original price of my apartment was "supposed" to be 4000 kuai the official quote for every night was over 150 kuai (which is ridiculous). I got it down to 3000 plus an extra 500 for internet, all utilities, fresh drinking water, cleaning service twice a week, and for other random things. It's a much nicer apartment and I'll post pictures tomorrow when I move in!

Today I had to get my deposit back, turn in my key, and get my room inspected (in the exact opposite order as I typed it). The guy kept calling me and trying to get it earlier, but I had class and my teacher yelled at him and told him to give me my deposit back and to come at 6 pm. I had everything packed up, ready, and cleaned by 6 pm and he came, early of course. He then took us to the office where we were supposed to turn in our keys and get our deposits back. However his boss tried cheating us on what we were supposed to say. My contract (the second one to be signed for our apartment) was substantially cheaper for utilities than Michiel's and Jose's. However they were trying to make each of us pay for the utilities. So that got straightened out. The thing was though, I already paid for our gas and water previously so we shouldn't have been charged for gas and water. I argued for awhile and then they also wanted to charge a 100 kuai cleaning fee, but I argued with them more and then went cleaned more while Jose argued with them. Me and Jose both got our fees taken away. The lady boss left, but didn't give the workers enough money to pay for my deposit, so I got really annoyed. I showed the lady the math two times and she was just like math doesn't work like that. And I was literally just like what. in. the. So I went over with the main man and my landlord and they were both like your math is right. But then they only had 2900. They still owed me 45 kuai and were just like come back tomorrow, come back tomorrow. In China, that is never a good idea. I argued with them for awhile, and then he was just like 操你吗 which means fuck your mother. I was just like 你说什么？！ (You just said what?!). Then I called my teacher, Li Mei, who is pretty boss and a little bit older than me and explained what was going on and she yelled at them for a little bit. Then to finally make all the arguing end the chill boss guy ended up giving me another 100 kuai and I gave him 55 kuai. In the end I got 2945 kuai out of my 3000 deposit, so pretty good.

TL;DR = Spent 3 hours arguing trying to get my full 3000 kuai deposit back (plus pay the correct amount for utilities) and ended up getting 2945 kuai. Woo!

Thanksgiving (Part 1)

Happy Thanksgiving y'all!
I just said y'all - what is Beijing doing to me?!

Anyways on with the show...

Today was my first Thanksgiving away from family. HOWEVER, I have a Beijing family and we had a small Small group Thanksgiving dinner at my friend Christy's apartment. There were about 15 of us there and we all made something. I helped Christy make a bunch of casseroles (who knew these were so important for Thanksgiving - sup south) and I made some cranberry lovin, because I loveeee cranberries. It was a great time and just I really felt connected to all of these people and America lovin'! My brit friend brought a huge American flag to dinner! (and a smaller British flag haha).

Also today I tried teaching my students about Thanksgiving to mixed results. My first class understood, but didn't understand hand turkeys. My second class was the opposite. Le sigh.

I'm thankful for the friends and family I have here in Beijing, and my family and friends back home and abroad. I love all of you :)

丁丁历险记 - The Adventures of TinTin!

I just got back from seeing my first movie in English. I saw Tin Tin in 3-D and English, but with Chinese subtitles! I didn't really remember much about Tin Tin, but for those Americans reading this, it's a lot like Indiana Jones. Steven Spielberg actually liked Indiana Jones a lot and someone told him that it was based off of Tin Tin, as my wise friend Immy told me - who is bloody obsessed with it (she's British, what can I say?). It was a nice 3-D movie in the fact that it wasn't the real-D 3-D (so no left-handed and right-handed glasses) and it didn't give me a headache!

I rode there on the back of Tom's bike :o. Tom is a brit studying at the tv university? It's the film and television university or something like that, but he's studying language. He's a super fast biker and I was just sitting on the back metal part hoping I wasn't going to die, haha. But we got there really fast and just in time to meet up with a huge group of people.

I've heard a lot of negative things about the chinese movie experience that people will just answer their phones, play with their iPads, just generally being loud and what not. I didn't really experience that, but then again I went to a foreign movie with a bunch of foreigners. There were some people talking for a little bit, but they got quiet pretty fast.

Favorite phrases:
Ten thousand typhoons!

Haddock: "Do you know how to fly this thing?"
Tintin: "Don't worry, I interviewed a pilot once."

Also I just checked out IMDB and it's not out in the states yet. go see it, it's great!

Out of sight, out of mind as a member of a sorority abroad.

Some of you may know I am in a sorority, others may not. I am, in fact, in one. It has been interesting to see the reactions of many people when they hear that I am in a sorority. You can generally either see the confusion written on their face or an “Oh I expected that” face. With some people I normally get the “sorority girls are sluts at my school,” which, you know, is always great to guess what they are insinuating. People join Greek life for a variety of reasons, which can range from wanting more friends or to do more activities or with some to have more people to drink with.

Before joining a sorority I was pretty anti-Greek life. The previous sentence structure “Before x happened” generally implies a change – however I’m not entirely sure what my change in thought is. I think for most people, sorority life is a crutch. You want new friends, you want to be more popular on campus, you want to be more involved, you want sisterhood, etc. The list goes on and on. I think sororities can be great things for some people and really benefit their lives and the community around them. Sororities and Greek life can do great things, but they also have a negative impact on others on campus as well. Social Greek life is based off of being exclusive – only so many people are allowed in. You have to be charming, and put together, academically successful, and involved on campus – the cream of the crop if you will. All of this, plus being compatible with the people in sororities. Do they like the same things you like? What’s different about you? What’s special about you? The results of this are twofold – on one hand it’s really positive because it gets together a similar group of girls with similar interests, that might not always meet. I know that I forged many connections and friendships with people that I might not otherwise talk to. On the other hand it can also cause some disharmonious relationships between people that shouldn’t exist. Oh she’s in that sorority, or oh he’s in that fraternity – they’re all whores or assholes or insert any other degrading word. Another aspect I think is negative is the rejection people receive from sororities. This can be from people who spend more time with those in their sorority and start to neglect older friendships, or from girls who are rejected from sororities they are in love with, or rejection of people based on their stereotype of Greek life or stereotypes Greek life has given them. Stereotypes have to start somewhere and there is a grain of truth in them.

I’ve had many conversations with people in and out of Greek life about Greek life and one thing that has continually resurfaced is friends within it. I have had times where I have been disgruntled with “friends” , but other times where I am completely happy with the friends I have made. The common thread is that obviously, not all of them are going to your good friends, or even friends when you are in it. That is just not possible. However the friendships that I had before joining my sorority and some that I forged after joining have become rock-hard friendships. I can depend on them for anything and I think that is something that is definitely an advantage of GL. It gives us another thing we can talk about, something we can do forever, tradition. I think that GL isn’t necessary for forming rock-hard friendships, but I can definitely see how it helped. Long after my days of college are over, these people will still be my friends and we will still be able to share this.

I can count on one hand the people in my sorority that have asked me about being in China and how I’m doing. Do people care? Some do, others don’t. The people that have contacted me have made my day when I saw it. For the most part though being in a sorority is out of sight, out of mind. I can’t even believe how frustrating it is to see that you’re basically useless to them now and are being replaced. That is life though and one must move on. It sucks when you send an email out, and maybe one or two people out of 80 respond. Or when you’re the only person abroad and you’re big is one of the four seniors (2 of which who have already taken littles) takes another little. Out of the four seniors one never had one, the other’s little is no longer in the sorority, one already had one, and one had one abroad. It’s not so much that I minded my big taking another little, it was more so that being the only person in my sorority abroad and with other people who have never taken littles, why is it my big took another? Just as a note: my big was begged because there was a shortage of potential bigs - she’s not terrible, I promise! Why couldn’t someone else step up that has never taken one? It definitely feels like being replaced, even though me and my big are tight. It is hard keeping up with what’s going on with my sorority from a different country for many reasons – what information is sent out, where I am, the time difference, etc. It’s frustrating to see how such a positive thing (me going to China) is limiting me back home because I am not physically there. It’s frustrating to get emails that you can’t do anything about because you’re abroad, and disheartening to get almost impersonal and cold emails – but how else would they be able to phrase it? Being abroad has magnified problems I had before I left and frankly, it sucks. There are many days while in China where I just don’t want to hear anything about my sorority. At all. My sorority has literally been the thing that has made me the unhappiest in China for a variety of reasons. It has also made me happy on other days, but not to the same extent on the spectrum as it has made me sad. It’s not the same when you can’t be there to defend yourself or even say anything when you don’t even get a chance, but why should I constantly have to do that? I also know on the other hand that people in my sorority love me and defend me as well – it is just hard to know about when you are abroad.

As Eleanor Roosevelt once said, “No one can make you feel inferior without your consent,” is something I’ve really taken to heart recently. Being far removed from things at home has lead me to really take a step back and re-evaluate things. Is my big taking another little that important? No. Was I hurt at the time? Yes. Am I now? No, because it’s not really that important once I understood what was going on. Have the people who contacted me from my sorority impacted me? Yes. Most in a very positive way, and I’m so grateful I’m friends with them or that they reached out to me! It definitely changed my perspective. I think it’s just the smaller things when you’re abroad that you notice more. I still love my sorority and how it has positively impacted my life by solidifying friendships, forming new connections and for various other reasons, but wish that it would also stop negatively influencing my life as well. But that is like anything in life, really.

Silk Market

This morning I had the unique experience that is the silk market. I actually don't find it to be the best market in Beijing by any means. It was an interesting experience though, and I feel like I learn a lot of functional chinese while I'm at places like that because I practice a lot. I have realized that I can really get into bargaining here, which is something I never really do at home. I think it's because I really dislike feeling like I am getting screwed over, which is something that happens a lot in China. Therefore I know that my price is good if the shopkeeper tends to get upset.

Rule of thumb: You normally take the original price and divide by 10 - and that should be the price you pay. If you pay 2-3 times the 10% it is okay, but the rest is a rip off. I did okay. Got a nice leather bag today.

My days are long and filled with around 7 hours of class (at least on Thursdays) and a bunch of activities. Today I had small group at my friends house and I stopped by the 5 Spot on the way home because I didn't really eat today. My friend Denise was having a little party at the 5 Spot which is this bar/restaurant above two of the main clubs in WDK. I ended up getting free pizza (score!) and supporting my friend, so boss! Now I just want to pass out ha. I have work tomorrow doing transcription for this Chinese company. Woooo.

Hope all is well with everyone.
xx,
Sarah

Getting Chinese Medicine: Successful.

Today I helped my flatmate, Jose, order food in Chinese (aka I asked him what he wanted - okay I told him he should try nan chou rou (basically naan (bread) plus delicious meat - and ordered for him.)

Then after this he told me he wanted medicine for his cold. Everyone in Beijing is getting sick right now, only 4 people (myself included) showed up to class today. We stopped by Lotus which is this huge supermarket, but they don't sell medicine there.

There is this pharmacy in the bottom of our apartment complex, but on the other side. We went there and I was able to describe his problems in Chinese (+1 Level for me!) and I learned new words today. 一次3粒，一日2次 Means 3 pills, two times during the day.
粒 = (li = pill)
一次几粒＝ each time x pills
一日几次＝ each day x times
x= any number (几）

Wooooo success!
I now have something called
感冒清热胶囊 （Ganmao qingre jiaonang)
Which from what I can tell helps alleviate head problems from sinuses, but isn't pseuophedrine (like Sudafed).


We shall see how this goes. Tomorrow I want to go to the hospital (well I might go to Sanlitun tomorrow to see if I can get my computer battery fixed, so maybe friday morning).

xx,
Sarah

I got to close the doors to the Forbidden City.

I got the rest of my grades back and I did really well in speaking and Comprehensive (damn you listening...). Whoooo, I can definitely notice my speaking and listening (in real life) improving. And writing too. I can communicate like a normal person, instead of a 5 year old!

I also found a new apartment because the lease is up on this one on the 29th (in the middle of the week, strangely enough) and because a) the heating in this apartment is terrible b) there may or may not be cockroaches and mold in parts of this apt c) I found one with a non chinese bathroom!!! d) this is right by a major intersection in Haidian which means it's constantly loud and the only quiet time I have heard so far is from 4-5 am.

*for those that don't know: Chinese bathrooms are basically bathroom with the toilet and the showerhead next to each other without separation, and there tends to be really bad drainage for the shower. I'll take a picture and put it up.

This weekend was pretty amazing. :) Friday I went to this really good South Korean place with my friend Mei Lan and we got cake afterwards at this hidden place. :o I spent Friday night with my friend Christy making food for her class on Saturday morning and we made cupcakes and had a SNL night. Saturday I finally went to Tianamen Square and the Forbidden City. I went with my classmate from Allegheny, Luke. We joked around and had fun. The Forbidden City was mainly cleared out which was awesome! Here are some pictures:

After that I ended up getting dinner at this really 好吃 place with Christy and we met up with our friend John and Lush. Lush was pretty crowded so we ended up going to Pyro and just getting a pitcher. Pyro had a throwback playlist of feel good songs, so we were singing and having a good time for most of the night. John then decided that he wanted to go to this club next door, Propaganda for ten minutes. Of course we ended up staying there for longer, but it was possibly the worst dj-ing I have ever heard.

Sunday I went to BICF and then we all grabbed lunch at La Bamba, which has the cheesiest quesadillas in Beijing. It's an okay place but it smells kind of bad. :/ I met up with some friends at Lush and then I went shopping for gifts for friends and family with Mohammed at YaShou market in Sanlitunr.

Overall successful weekend.

Work harder.

Depressing day. I had my tingli (listening) midterm and did okay. And by okay I mean not near my best at all, and I can only work harder from here. Read B-, my lowest grade since being in China (and kills my current A in the class). I have problems when listening tape recordings to hear the correct tones, but I just need to practice more and more with tape recordings. Normally I don't have a problem when listening to people talk in real life, but then I use their facial expressions and hand movements and context clues to understand what they are saying and figure what the meaning of the word is. I think tingli class frustrates me a little bit, because it seems the least useful to me in terms of being able to listen well to Chinese. A lot of the situations we talk about are things that wouldn't normally come up so it feels like I apply it the least in real life. However that is my fault and I will work harder to listen better.

Tomorrow is speaking (koyu) and comprehensive. I am pretty prepared for koyu (we were given the questions and the topics that we had to know about) and comprehensive is iffy at the moment because I need to review the earlier chapters vocabulary. I am going to continue to review and make sure I'm not mixing up characters, but I am pretty sure about the grammar.

One thing that I've noticed that is radically different in China from the United States is the attitude that students have. Students here generally work harder and blame themselves and not the teachers when they get a bad grade. When I teach my students will visually reprimand themselves when they get things wrong and almost shame themselves, whereas you would never really see that in America.

Aaand back off to study. Hope all is well.
xx,
Sarah

Pictures from around my apartment

Beijing is getting colder and colder. 北京越来越冷。Therefore I went to the Korean market by me that my friend Mei Lan suggested (she will be in the picture with me).

This is what you see once you walk out my door into my little corner of the universe.


Sorry it's not rotated...blogspot isn't letting me at the moment. This is the building across from me (and it's an abnormally smog free day).



There is a bike seller right by me. I really want the green wheels on that yellow bike. It would be sweet.



This is the line for a popular Red Bean cake. It's always this crowded.


This bike has been here since the beginning of time.


This is the shop again selling the red bean cake.


A broken sign


China's version of Chipotle. (Run by a Canadian)


MY FAVORITE. This is a baozi (or maozi) store and I always get really good and really inexpensive meat pie esque things.


The way to the korean market by me


Me and Mei Lan


Just some people shopping.








An awesome bakery by me :) (Well...korean esque bakery, not what you would really think of back home.)

Over and out,
Sarah

Some pictures from the Great Wall and around

I'm taking a study break at the moment, so I'll put up some pictures. I have midterms tomorrow and Friday - Tingli (listening) tomorrow, Comprehensive and Speaking on Friday. Now that I cleaned my room and did my laundry and organized everything I can commence studying and listening to a ton of Chinese to really absorb whatever I didn't absorb at this point. (i.e. listen to the cd for a hour or so and mark down and review vocab and get a good night's rest).

Here are some Great Wall pictures:


This is our awkward family photo. L to R Me, John, Lissa.


Doing the China squat, you will get good at this after about a month of being here.


It's so pretty in the fall! And there was no one there because it rained/snowed in the morning.


The steps are as high as my knee!

xx,
Sarah

It's a small world (世界太巧了！）

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but China is a really really small world. I live in Wudaokou, which is in the University District. While on the street one day near my house, Marin, an Allegheny grad saw me! She sent me a message on fb and we got lunch.

I've been meeting up with a fair amount of Allegheny people over here. Just last night I got dinner with Tiancheng and Shan at hotpot (Tiancheng's favorite - every time we get food, we get hot pot!). This xiabuxiabu was nice in the fact it didn't play the rip off numa numa song. At the xiabu xiabu across the street from my apartment they just changed numa numa to xiabu xiabu. It makes you want to kill someone while you are eating because they play it on loop while you're there for a hour. Tiancheng and Shan were both my housemates at Allegheny (or flat mates, you bloody brits are infiltrating my English!) and we had a grand ol' time. Basically I practiced my Chinese and they practiced their English. They also taught me a bunch of fun (i.e. slang) words and I taught them some from my extensive knowledge of colloquial English.

Phrases I have learned in the past month or so: (a lot, but good ones)
Need to: 需要 （xuyao）（ie 我妈需要发我我的医药）（my mom needs to send me my medicine）
Sleep well：一个好好休息 （or have a good rest）
Really？： 真的吗？ （zhen de ma？）
Turn it up：开小一点儿 （for music or radio － kai xiao yi dianr）
Turn it down：关小一点儿 （guan xiao yi dianr）
Can I try —————— on： 我可以试试件——吗？（wo keyi shi shi jian —— ma？）

I'm at that point where I finally integrated into China (somewhat) and I'm not really missing stuff at home right now. There are some things I miss, but I appreciate the things I'm getting here in China. Well it's more like I miss some things from home, but I'm not letting it ruin what I have here. There are advantages and drawbacks to both.

One of the most important things I've learned here is that don't feel tied down with what you are doing at home. There are so many things you can do in this world. If you are unhappy with what you are doing, change it! I knew I wanted to go to China, and there were many roadblocks in my way, but I made it here. Experience the world, you'll learn a) how small it is and b) your world at home isn't as perfect or bad as you make it out to be.

Much love from China,
Sarah

Update

Hey all,
Things have been going really well, I have just been really busy and haven't had a lot of time to blog. To see some of the pictures from this weekend from the Subway Loop Halloween Party click here. (I was at Dongzhimen for around 2 hours, see if you can find me ;) and this happened all over line 2 in Beijing.)

Number 1: I taught about Halloween in my third grade class. My first class was amazing, the second class could only be described as little monsters. I taught my first class a lot, and the second class didn't get as much. I ended up kind of teaching like a Chinese teacher in the fact that I did the dreaded 听写tingxie (dictation) and gave 作业zuoye (homework)

Number 2: You should read this article "I fought for 18 years to have a cup of coffee with you." It is about the struggles more rural chinese have breaking into city life, and a lot of how people take things for granted.

Number 3: The pollution here has been past hazardous levels. Therefore, I have been feeling very sick. Basically it's supposed to irritate your lungs, and I already have breathing problems. Whomp whomp.

Number 4: I am working my butt off in my classes. Chinese classes are a lot different from American classes. Basic structure: Tingxie (quiz), lesson, go over dialogue and vocab, discussion, xiuxi (break), then more vocab work. Today I had a 2 hour test in Comprehensive.

Number 5: I went to the Great Wall of China! I went to the Mutianyu section and no one was there :D

aaand I'll add more. Much love from China! xx

Bike stolen and first day teaching in the slums.

Today was a pretty epic day.

I woke up at 6:30 am to teach my first English class to 小三 (third graders). Me, being a total morning person, couldn't find my subway/public transport card. (Note: This card is equivalent to magic in Beijing. I use it for pretty much everything* and only non-muggles get it.) Heh. So it's about a hour commute from my apartment to the slums. I take 2 subway lines and a bus and walk a little bit and I'm there. I'm teaching at ZhiXing school, which is a private school in the slums for migrant workers children. The goal of this school is to basically have the children go to a better intermediate school or high school.

Teaching. Was. Crazy. I have around 60-80 kids in each class. They don't know English at all really. I don't know a lot of Chinese relating to it. Also when you say something and they say it back, they will yell. It creates a wall of sound. My first class was really good, my second was out of control. It was really frustrating to me to see them that out of control, because as soon as their teacher came in they all straightened up. I'm pretty sure they get beaten though. :/ I just need to become more like a Chinese teacher (minus the beating aspect).



Aaaaand when I got back I found out my bike was stolen. :( There is a saying in Beijing that you are not a true Beijinger until your bike has been stolen at least once. There is no discrimination against foreigners or natives. My friend that is from Beijing had his bike stolen, and a lot of people I know that I go to Uni with also have had theirs stolen. I ended up reporting this to the police. I had a U-bolt lock on my back wheel, which you can't cut with wire or bolt cutters. So they had to have picked up my bike and carried it away. Curse you Bike-thief. They're probably selling it on the black market. My friend Clayton told me a story about when he was in high school here, someone stole his friend's iPod. His dad took him to get a new iPod, and they went to the black market. And while they were there they found his exact iPod. The person didn't even bother to wipe the iPod. So his dad was just like we're taking this back. The shopkeeper got really angry, but the dad just argued that he worked for the embassy and that the guy didn't want him to call the police and that his son's name was stored in the iPod, etc. In Beijing this is ridiculous, because basically once you've lost/had something stolen here you're not going to get it back.




*Transportation only.

Open Mic Night at Lush

Sunday nights starting around 9 is open mic night at Lush! It's a great time :o
It's currently a war between the Brits and the Americans.


Look Britain, we've beaten you twice, just throwing it out there!

All hail the wondrous streetfood of Beijing. (JK Weekend Update)

Things have been going well, albeit a little crazy. Just back to the grind of daily life in Beijing (who am I kidding, I love it here). Our class is like a small, tight knit family. I love it!

On Saturday I finally experienced the Beijing Zoo and Sanlitun! (三里屯) or in Beijingese, Sanlituar. The Beijing Zoo = kind of depressing. All of the people I know from China don't get why foreigners think it's a little depressing. It is basically a cage within the cage and that's it. There is nothing for the animals to do besides pace (if they can) and sleep. So sad.

The pandas were so cute!!!!!
(Insert panda picture here once I find my cord :o )

Sanlitun was pretty awesome! We went to this awesome (for China) pizza place. It was pretty good Italian style pizza, and then we went shopping :D. I need to go back there to the Apple Store, because charging my computer here evidently is messing up my battery. But it's one of the 3 authorized apple stores in Beijing (all the rest are fakes...uh oh.) I was hanging out with the Mormons, Luke bailed, and a bunch of random people from Capital Normal. It was full of shenanigans as we explore the bar street (and realized we started going to the bars around 7:30 and me and the swiss people were the only ones that could drink being the non-mormons).

Theeeeen we went to this pretty cool dumpling-esque place? I say dumpling-esque because I forget the name of the dumpling things we had. It's a certain kind of dumpling that also has soup in it. Anyone?

Then more bar hopping and what not. Found another Doner Kebab place. I have literally found one in every single country I have been in. US, Hungary, Italy, Austria, Germany, France, Switzerland, Belgium, The Netherlands, etc. DONER KEBAB. The real thing taking over the world haha.


Sunday is the day of soccer. I woke myself up early, dragged myself out of bad, biked to the field by C lou and played a match. Pierre thought I was sick (I just woke up....so that's what I look like). My team ended up winning, and I scored 3 of the 5 goals my team made. Boo-yah. We played until 1ish until we all decided we were hungry. I tried some pretty balling dumplings (I <3 dumplings!) and some type of fruit/pork chinese specialty soup.

And then biked to Lush (expat bar) and did homework for about 5 hours. Whomp.


funtimesinbeijing.

Playing dumb can be a good strategy in China.

Once upon a time there was a girl named Baiyaqi. (Or mariachi or beyatch as people have heard.) She was parking her bike while she went to go food shopping. She put it close to another bike, locked it, and went shopping. When she came back, she unlocked her bike, put her groceries in her basket and started to leave to go home. When she went about 3 or 4 steps, someone grabbed the back of her bike. What?!

"Xiaowai!" Baiyaqi turns around. She just stares. The man holds up 3 fingers and goes "3 jiao". Baiyaqi turns around and tries moving her bike, to no avail.

The guy again says "3 jiao!" Baiyaqi then says "Shenme?!! (what?!)"

"3 jiao!" the guy, yet again, repeats?

"Shenme?!" Baiyaqi demands.

"3 jiao - Mister, can you explain to this xiaohai (little foreigner) why 3 jiao?!"

Baiyaqi continues to look clueless. Man frustrated goes off in search of another victim.


Basically I think he wanted 3 jiao because he "watched my bike". Wtf bro? I had no idea what was going on at first, but then after not saying anything the guy just got frustrated and left. I don't understand how one spot on the street, where just about anyone parks their bikes, suddenly becomes his responsibility to watch. Scratch that, I didn't even know people watched bikes! I'm not paying some random guy that walks up to me and demands money.


Laowai: 1 bike dude demanding money: 0

Anyways so I didn't pay him. Thanks random chinese guy that helped me in that situation. Sorry old bro, maybe next time (...not!)

P.s. finally bought an electric kettle. booyah american mac and cheese I can finally make you! Also I had the most delicious baozi today! It's like a meat pastry, <3 so good!

Beijing Air!

So this is really quick because I need to go to work (I am making money being on a Chinese website reading english....boss).

If you look at @BeijingAir on twitter it tells you the air quality of the day. (Here is something that explains the numbers it gives you.)

Today it is :

BeijingAir

10-10-2011; 08:00; PM2.5; 69.0; 153; Unhealthy // Ozone; 0.0; 0; No Reading

151 to 200

Unhealthy

Red

Whomp time to get a mask!

China you are chaotic and a whirlwind.

Since I've been back it has definitely been a rollercoaster. My chinese housemates moved out, it smells like something died in the wall (ew?), my phone was stolen, I went to the art district, got lost in a bunch of hutong (alley), my internet died, met a bunch of cool people at Lush while using their internet, my internet was still dead, my american phone decided to work about 20% of the time, realized I could get internet on my kindle, figured out the chinese bus system, found the Beijinger and TimeOut Beijing!! (this was a big one), learned how to make authentic dumplings, and got my PHONE RETURNED!!!!!!!!

(Ps you can read about my mongolia trip here)

China has a lot of ups and downs.

Down: My phone was stolen
Up: It was miraculously returned

Down: It can get pretty lonely
Up: A lot of people are feeling it. I met a bunch of new people at an expat (foreigner) hangout.

Down: I can't understand a lot of Chinese
Up: I can still hold conversations and am not the typical American demanding people to speak English.

Down: Chinese people will speak English to me instead of Chinese.
Up: I AM GOING TO PRACTICE MY CHINESE. JUST YOU WATCH ME.

Down: Get called a laowai and people will try to screw me over.
Up: Live it, own it, and haggle them down to below local prices.

Down: Being disconnected from Allegheny, my sorority, and home life.
Up: Being disconnected from Allegheny, my sorority, and home life.

Down: No CHEESE. No BREAD. NO CHEESE! WTF CHINA?!
Up: Dumplings. Fried Montau. Noodles. OM NOM NOM.

Down: Being lonely
Up: Awesome new friends :)

Something I have been thinking about is that for a lot of people it's out of sight, out of mind. China has definitely changed my perspective on a lot of things already. I notice that I have a different work ethic and a different approach to people here. Even though China can be a very me me me society, there is a sense of close-knit community between people. I am thankful everyday for the close friends I have made here and am making here. In America I feel like I have a wider group of "friends", which after going abroad, seem more like a large group of acquaintances with some real friends thrown in.

Allegheny College is all about community, and there is definitely a better sense of community there than many places, but I've been pretty disappointed with Allegheny since being here (and maybe a little bit last semester). It was a constant struggle with Allegheny for me to even go abroad, and my struggle, months later, is still not finished. And the irony of it is that I got into a much better program. Furthermore if you're going abroad the support for students is laughable. Well actually, a better question is "What support system?" There is none. Neither is there really support from my sorority. Which when you think about it, is a lot about support and sisterhood. Sisters helping sisters. Yeah, okay. Maybe 3-5 people out of my entire sorority have sent me an email or a message. Don't get me wrong, I love my sorority and it is very true to a lot of our core values, but going abroad definitely helped me see it in a clearer light.

I think everyone at some point should go abroad and live outside of the United States or at least in an area vastly different from where you are from/grew up. It opens your eyes to many things.

I guess one example of this would be that Americans are all gungho about freedom of speech and net neutrality and freedom. In China, a lot of Chinese people are for some of the regulation of the internet (for things such as porn, nsfw things, pedophiles, etc), but there is some expressions of discontent.

China works toward the new American (Chinese) dream. There are millions of people migrating in China in search for a better life. In America I see so many people content with where they are or feel stuck in one place. It's not easy to get out of that, but go somewhere new. Move, get out, save up a thousand dollars, go somewhere new, teach english or somehow earn money, and soak up some culture. It's worth it.


And end rambling.

Mongolia!

Mongolia trip:

Saturday: We left by train in Beijing to go to the capital of Mongolia, Hohhot. It was a 11 hour train ride, but we had a blast. Chinese ramen + cards + a lot of free time = a grand ol’ time. Also leaving at 9 pm counted as a tour by train.

Sunday: We got there around 7-8 am. We were shepherded to the buses where we proceeded to sit for about 3 hours without knowing why. (Later on we learned 3 people missed the train, so around 90 people were waiting for 3 people.) Jack and I decided to go take pictures at a really cool square we found. Then we convinced Luke to come because we were just sitting there. We took some baller pictures that I will upload. Then the girl sitting next me on the bus game me this peanut butter/nutella mix on bread. I was honestly in heaven. We were then on the bus for another 2 hours where we made a pit stop at California beef noodles. However we didn’t eat here and then drove for another hour or 2 before we got to lunch which was pretty good. In the middle of the table there was just this creepy looking fish. I tried it later on, it was pretty good. Also this was beginning of a lot of the Montau…..which is like a doughy bread ball, but nowhere near as good. Then we were on the bus for another hour or 2 more to get to the desert. (Theme of the trip so far – live on bus).

The desert was awesome!! It was this pretty unknown Mongolian theme park for the desert and we rode camels, raced atvs, chilled with our sandy shoes, saw awesome sand sculptures and many more things. Late at night we then went to another restaurant which was basically the same meal as lunch minus the creepy fish. We thought we were going to stay in yurts that much, but not really. We ended up staying in this hotel in the middle of nowhere :o

Monday: MY BIRTHDAY!!!! On my birthday we went to the Ghengis Khan Mausoleum in the morning and then in the afternoon we explored a temple. Aaand then we got to the grasslands where I stayed in a somewhat traditional yurt for my birthday! Except for the fact it was pretty cold (read below 0 degrees celcius) and our yurt was a) made out of cloth and b) had broken windows. SO COLD. Me, Jack, and Luke all slept in our jackets and together. My night outfit: Sweatpants over my jeans. My Russian hat. Fleece over sweatshirt over underarmour over shirt. It was a pretty tame birthday.

Tuesday: Fight with the tour guide because he tried to screw us over. To summarize, we bought 1200 kuai tickets that were not all inclusive, but included transportation, hotels, food and most activities. There was a 1900 kuai ticket that was all inclusive, but it was a blatant rip off. We told the man that we wanted to buy our own tickets because they were a lot cheaper for students so they would only be 240 kuai for the desert thing instead of the 310 that he was charging for it (aka full price). He ended up buying our tickets even though we specifically told him not to. He forcibly dragged us through the line and away from the ticketbooth and then tried to screw us over with those tickets. Not happening. We ended up only giving him 265 kuai later. Instead of horseback riding in a caravan for 2 hours we went hiking and found a bunch of cool stuff and met a potato farmer. After this we took a bus to the “handicraft” factory which was basically them trying to sell us mass produced crap. Then we took the bus to Hohhot and chilled until our train. We found this cool lantern festival and I have a great story to come back and edit in.

Wednesday: Back in Beijing!

Brb off to 呢蒙古 (Inner Mongolia).

So myself, Luke, and Jack are off to Inner Monglia for 5 days! We're going for October National holiday. We were in between here and Tibet for the break and we chose Inner Mongolia, though me and Luke are for sure going to Tibet at some point during this trip. I'm celebrating my birthday on Monday by waking up in a yurt in Mongolia, ha.

We are doing a tour of Inner Mongolia with Happy Holiday (a foreign students travel agency). Just like in a typical chinese tour, we get some pretty sweet hats.

I feel like I'm in a bad 90s band.

According to the pamphlet this is what we're doing: (Note I copied this word for word, spelling mistake for spelling mistake.)

H line: Inner Mongolia Grassland, Desert, Wudant Temple, Cenghiskhan msusoleum and Hohhot five days tour by train.

D1: Go to Huhhot by train. Live in the train (The train with air condition is very fast)

D2: Arrive in Huhhot in the morning. And then the bus will take you to the "Xilamurun" grassland. When arrive,we will be warmly welcomed by the Mongolian with there own specially means --toast and offer hada to those distinguished guests. At lunch you have chance to taste delicious Mongolian roast hand-mutton.Ride horse, visit the five famous view spots in grassland for exple Mongolia family and AoBao Hill where the Mongolian pray for good harvest and happ y life, Watch wonderful horse racing and wrestling performance at the grass ground. After dinner enjoy the mongolian singing and dancing around the bonfire and watch the beautiful star-sky/ Live in the 2 person luxury yurt (three or four stars).

D3: Watch sunrise in the grassland, after breakfast go to Wudang Temple which named one of the three Widely Famous Temple with Pudala Temple in Tibet and Ta'er Temple in Qing hai province. after lunch go to the Famous Ghenghis khan mausoleum. It's very famous spot in the world. then go to the Desert, watching the Large national song and dance performances, Live in the Desert hotel two stars room or four stars room at night.

D4: Watch sunrise in the desert, after breakfastafter enjoy the desert scenery and all games(camel riding/cable car/desert car/sliding board and so on). then watch the famous Erdos wedding perfance(12:30), after lunch go to Hohhot to visit the Mongolia Meng-Liang national handicraft factory, turn back to Beijing by train (the train is very fast)

D5: Arrive at Beijing in the morning, the happy tour is over!

Also what in the world BBC?

Day in the Life of a Smogster?

Some days in Beijing there is a hint of blue in a gray sky, other days you can't see your hand if you hold it out in front of you. Today is one of the latter days. Beijing has days where the air pollution is so bad that you will see many people
a) with face masks on ranging from surgical-esque masks to fancy colors/hello kitty/the like.
b) gasping for air
c) going slower than normal
d) wearing a scarf over their face
e) reaching for an inhaler
f) or actually, you see less people.

Today was one of those days where I wish I had a, was doing both b, c, and e, and wish I did d as well.

This is the view from my window today:


Normally I bike about 10-15 to and from school, then again I also speed bike. Beijing is bike city and after a month of being here biking for hours is nothing. After biking home today I was gasping and wheezing like crazy. Some days it is clear and other days it's worse than this one. Then again, Beijing is the air pollution capital of the world currently. The one advantage of it being smoggier is that it's generally quieter and people honk less, because less people are out. You would think there would be more honking because people have more trouble seeing each other, but this is Beijing.

On a completely other note, here are some of the pretty cool cats I've met/hung out with today.
This is Pierre. He is from France. He's doing the Nuclear program and gets to have fun classes about environmental programs in Chinese that he can't actually understand.



We went to this really cool noodle place that Tiancheng's cousin Tianxi showed me. There are no foreigners here at all and there are absolutely no pictures on the menu or any english spoken. However I was able to order spicy beef noodles. (很辣牛肉面条). When I first came to Beijing, this was one of the first meals I had. That day, I had a lot of trouble eating the soup/noodles with chopsticks and it was super hot and spicy for me. Today, I was pro with the chopsticks (it's learn or starve) and it wasn't spicy. I think after a month of eating spicy food in Beijing that if it's not really really spicy it just tastes normal. Non spicy things are starting to taste a little bland.

Then the I had the fun of speaking class today and comprehensive (writing mainly but with speaking and listening too...it's super fun).


Pictured left is Taku (Japan), Mohammed (Saudi Arabia) and Dawei(David)(Hungary). They are all pretty cool!



Pictured above are: Clayton (US), Lydia (Canada), Mohammed (Saudi Arabia), Me (US), Anthony (UK/Australia).
Clayton and Lydia sit in front of me and Su Mo Han (Mohammed), and Anthony sits behind us.

Pictured below on the left are 2 South Korean students in black and a Dutch student in Blue. In the middle picture my speaking teacher just finished braiding Lydia's hair. She french braided my hair and Lydia's hair today during the xuexi (break) in class. On the left is Dawei (David) asking my comprehensive teacher something about tones.



Depending on what class we have, there are normally 6-10 students. We stay in the same classroom and our teachers rotate. We always have class from 1-5 pm Monday through Friday. Basically we have tingxie (dictation quizzes) and exams everyday. I'm studying constantly here. We joke around a lot and today someone said a lot of things in the wrong tone and our teacher said a) she couldn't understand any of it and b) he said some pretty funny things because he pronounced them wrong and said good horse instead of number and then some other things. Our class couldn't stop laughing.

I'm totally ready for nap time now though, ha. So more later.